Herding Cats

Content of any credible project performance measurement system

Any system that claims to measure perform of a project needs to provide: Planning of all work scope for the project to completion For traditional projects this means a master plan and master schedule for the planned work, the sequence... Read more →

Doctor, Doctor it hurts when I do this

The jawbone of an ass is just as dangerous a weapon today as in Sampson's time. --- Richard Nixon When we encounter bad management and then construct an alternative to correct, without first assessing how to stop the bad management... Read more →

What is Earned Value?

Earned Value Management is a method of measuring the performance of work efforts that have been budgeted and the work planned in a time phased manner. Earned Value should be named Eraned Budget - you earn your budget for the... Read more →

Teams

Which comes first? The social team, or The outcome team? Let's start with Jon Katzenbach's definition of a team. Katzenbach is a recognized leader in counseling high profile CEO's and their staff - the business teams that are at the... Read more →

Quote of the Day

When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory... Read more →

Sources of Variance

Cost variances on projects come from a variety of sources. Here's a picture of some of the drivers that are common in many domains. The management of projects means you have to address these and many other activities to answer... Read more →

Trust

Steve Wake's presentation at IPM EVA, from Jack Ricchiuto's site. Weighted expectations - the relative importance of each expected outcome from the work effort. Delivery of Expectations - do those expected deliverables actually show up? Clarity of expectations - the... Read more →

Agile Processes and the US Department of Defense

David Rico provides a very nice overview of how Agile development is done on DoD systems. Click on picture, a name and email required by AFEI for a record of who watched. Read more →

All Projects Must Have a Strategy for Success

All projects must have a strategy for success. This is not the strategy for building the product - although that is a must have as well. It is the strategy for the outcomes of the project. It is the set... Read more →

Evidence of 5 Immutable Principles of Project Success

The Five Immutable Principles of Project success must be in place for any real chance of showing up on time, on budget, and on specification. Now that these are recognized, what is the evidence that these principles are being met?... Read more →

Showing Up On Time

Half of all success is just showing up on time- Woody Allen This morning's Daily Camera's Dilbert has this prophetic strip. We all have experiences with meetings starting late, people showing up late to meetings. But we also have experience... Read more →

Quote of the Day

You cannot have an execution culture without robust dialog - one that brings reality to the surface through openness, candor, and informality. Intense debate brings up all sides of an issue, even if it makes people uncomfortable. ... from Execution:... Read more →

Stop Motivating People - They Hate It

A post on Curious Company had an interesting statement Stop Motivating People They Hate It This resonated with me for several reasons. Motivation comes from internal forces. Attempts to motivate externally - that is I'm trying to motivate you to... Read more →

Hume's Advice for Theoretical Business Process Advice

Hume has some advice for the proffers of business or process improvement that fail to provide tangible evidence from the field that such advice actually works in a domain interesting to the reader ... If we take our hand to... Read more →